


A New Spring

by wickedtrue



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: BAMF Women, Gen, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-18
Updated: 2014-03-18
Packaged: 2018-01-16 05:22:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1333603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wickedtrue/pseuds/wickedtrue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When her family gave Vina Shepard a bottle of brightly colored water, she was confused.  When her Da dumped bright blue and pink powder on her head, she was annoyed.  When her Ajji went giggling through the gauntlet of boys with powder and water guns, Vina finally started to smile.  Her mother, ever stoic, even let a little girl splash her sandles with purple water.</p><p> </p><p>  <i>5 Ways Shepard Could Have Spent Holi</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Earth

**Author's Note:**

> Another old piece of fic never posted! It was supposed to be 5 Ways Shepard spent Holi. It has a fairly big following where I live in the US, and I had wanted to explore and share that with Mass Effect fandom at the time. Never finished, tho. I liked the two parts that enough that I wanted to post them. Mass Effect 3 ending sort of broke a lot of my urge to explore Mass Effect in fanfic, but maybe one day I might come back to it. Shepard will always be one of my favorite fictional characters.

When Vina Shepard was eight, her parents were ground side on Earth for most of the year. Her parents (at her Ajji's instance) settled with her father's mother in her big, empty house along the Indian coast. Her mother twitched a lot, going for long walks down the coast and through the nearby hills. Shepard learned how to shoot for the first time ("She is too young!" her Ajji would shout. She and her mother would share a sidelong, secret look; the next week, Shepard got her first set of night goggles). Her Da rebuilt his old boat from his own childhood and took her diving in the bay. Her Ajji would tut-tut at them all but smile nonetheless as she feed Shepard rava dosa with thick coconut chutney (it would be the only home cooked food she would eat for over a decade; when she ate what they severed her in the chow hall, she would always pretend it was her Ajji's cooking).

One day, when it was finally starting to become hot again, her Da said they weren't going swimming today. Shepard pouted and had a tiny fit when her mother dressed her in her oldest and most worn clothes. Her Ajji took her hand as they walked up the rough path back toward the city. "You will like this," her Ajji promised. "It is your first Holi."

When they gave her a bottle of brightly colored water, she was confused. When her Da dumped bright blue and pink powder on her head, she was annoyed. When her Ajji went giggling through the gauntlet of boys with powder and water guns, Vina finally started to smile. Her mother, ever stoic, even let a little girl splash her sandles with purple water.

When the sun was finally starting to set, her Da slung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "Did you have fun?" he asked.

Her mother and Ajji walked behind them, barely containing laughter. "She's asleep," her mother teased.

"You will be pink for a week," her Ajji told her.

"I hate pink," Vina muttered with a smile.


	2. Elysium

Vina Shepard just offered a half smile when the rest of her unit asked where she was going. "You can come if you want," she offered. 

"She's just going to the gun range again!" some of them shouted when a few of the more green cadets followed her out. 

"It's shore leave, Shepard!" Lt. Gomez shouted. "Play time, not gun time!"

"Where are we going, JG?" one of younger women (Ann? Ashley? Arie?) asked after they made their way out of Alliance complex and were climbing into a four-wheel drive car. 

Vina loved that about outer colonies: she could go tearing through real grass, bouncing across hills in real gravity, and slam on brakes for sudden stops. No need to calculate fuel usage for thrusters nor the distance needed to slow down a specific mass going a certain velocity. Just her in a metal cage, bouncing on rubber tears across a planet surface, listening to the bioengine chug away.

"They have a huge Holi celebration here," Shepard answered. "The aliens love it. Tonight is Holika Dahan, the bonfire night."

"Holey Hoka what?"

"First, we need some coconuts--" she tried to explain

The city darkened many of the lights around the park where the bonfire was held: that was the only reason they spotted the incoming ships. The orbital defense grid had been hacked, and the ground side cannons didn't activate until a large portion of the pirate fleet had broken atmo. 

Protocol was this: Clear the civilians. Lock those that couldn't be drafted in the underground bunkers. Inform command of their situation. And wait. Elysium was a major colony close to a Mass Relay. It shouldn't be more than a few hours.  
What happened was most of the pirate crews and ground teams survived the crash landing after their ships were taken out by either the city's defense systems or the few Alliance ships overhead. Colonial bunkers, while tough as a starship hull, can only withstand constant assault from explosions and incendiaries for so long. Her squad lost their CO in the first fifteen minutes when a pirate shoved their shotgun through a breach in the bunker's main doors. She held Gomez' hand as she died, picked up the pirate's shotgun, and took out the three batarians clustered outside their doors with her bare hands and biotics. 

Hours later, she stood at attention before Admiral Hackett in the [ship name] medbay. The old man just watched her for a long, long time, casually sitting on the doctor's rolling stool, and she felt her right knee start to twitch (she had kneed a turian in the stomach and face, which had not been her smartest tactical move to date). 

"At ease, Lieutenant Shepard." The Admiral motioned to the chair in front of him. "Have a seat."

Shepard looked longingly at the cushioned chair. She had been the last one evaced out, refusing to leave planetside until every one of her squad and recruited civilians had been seen to by medical or taken shipward. Her face was still covered in blood, though a medic had slathered medigel over the nasty gash across her nose (they kept telling her it would scar something nasty if she didn't get it taken care of soon). She was a mess and exhausted. "If I sit, sir, I won't get up again."

The corner of the Admiral's craggy mouth twitched upward. "As you wish." He rolled his shoulders back and was all business again. "I don't have an official report yet, Lieutenant, but I've heard from every soldier and marine down there that you took command and made those pirates wish they had never even thought up this crazy plan. Almost single-handedly."

"No, sir."

Hackett waited for her to continue and when she did not, asked, "'No, sir?' That's all you have to say? You did not take command of your squad?"

"No, I took command, sir. But, I had both my squad and civilian support."

"You didn't engage three batarians in only hand to hand combat? I have that on video from planetside surveillance."

Shepard shifted on her feet, uncomfortable. "I have biotics, sir. That's hardly 'only'."

"And those four turians?"

"I had an extra grenade." Shepard flicked her eyes to Hackett then back to the wall. "Sir," she added as an afterthought.

"...do you always have an extra grenade on your person during shore leave, Lt. Shepard?"

Shepard kept her eyes trained on the wall over Hackett's shoulder.

The Admiral snorted and sat up. "Shepard, they're going to stick a very large medal on your chest. Probably the Star of Terra. Then, they're promote you at least once. And when the brass is done making you dance for the PR junkets, I'm shoving you on a transport to Rio, and you will complete an N1 distinguish. Is that clear to you, Lt.?"


End file.
